The Battle of the Badgerways

The party looks up. Standing on the west ledge is a bronze construct in the shape of a tall, gaunt man with spindly limbs and a head shaped like a scroll case standing on its end, studded with glowing red gems. In one pincerlike hand it holds a long bronze pole topped with a C-shaped blade.

"I HAVE COME FOR WHAT I SOUGHT," it says in a dead, flat voice. "I AM IMPLACABLE." With one unnaturally sudden, swift leap, it springs from the west ledge to the one Zora is standing on, landing on large, squared-off feet. Zora screams and leaps from the ledge, hitting the ground hard but rolling into a somersault.

Zora staggers half-upright, grabs her bone javelin from where she dropped it, and jogs toward the ground-floor entrance, limping. "Come on!" she yells.

Seeing Zora head for an exit, Leth follows her, letting an arrow loose at the construct as he goes. He stays just a moment to see the outcome - this creature looks to be made of metal, and if that's the case, Leth isn't sure how they could harm it. He hopes to see some signs that it is indeed suffering harm from their attacks.

"Mordred -- all of you -- come on! Come on!" Zora shouts, hopping backwards down the tunnel on her good leg.

"Move! I'll cover you!" shouts Zangua as he draws his club. With a weapon in each hand, Zangua dances lightly in front of the Implacable to keep its attention, remaining between it and the fleeing girl. Turning its attention on Zora's flight down the tunnel, the Implacable announces to the room, "YOU CANNOT FLEE FROM THE IMPLACABLE," and whirls its catchpole at the dancing warrior standing between it and its quarry.

Seeing that his arrow had no effect, Leth curses and puts away his bow, and goes to retrieve his shortswords as they move down the tunnel. He suddenly remembers he has a "new" sword - and didn't Felor say it was enchanted? Maybe that could prove to be effective. He draws the magic shortsword in his right hand and one of his original shortswords in his other, though he makes no attempt to attack The Implacable and instead opts to keep following Zora down the tunnel, simply being prepared to fight with the swords should he be forced to do so.

"I beg to differ," Felor mutters as he scoops his equipment off of the floor and retreats down the tunnel with Zora.

Knowing full well that his weapons have no apparent effect on this construct, Zangua opts for a tactical withdrawal. He risks a glance over his shoulder to check on how far the others have gone, then feints forward with his club in a thrust. He then pivots on his front foot to face the tunnel, and quicker than one might imagine Zangua dashes after the retreating group.

Seeing the party's attacks against the construct fail to have much impact, Felor's mind turns to the retreat. Zora's injury would surely slow them down if not treated, and that gash on Zangua's chest looked nasty. The description of what happened to the past victims of the construct's catchpole flashes through his head. Zangua's wound needs seeing too as well, but for now they just needed to escape. Catching up with Zora, Felor puts his hand on her shoulder to stop her for a moment, then bends down to touch her knee and whispers a prayer.

Shamush, through the haze of blood, froth and spittle notices the absence of his comrades and seems to come back to his senses somewhat. He backs off slowly and lopes slowly after the party, looking pale, haggard and beat.

Leth continues running after the group. "You know..." He shouts towards the group between breaths, "We'll have to.... stop and fight it.... sometime...Where are we headed?"

"Fight it? We've got to lose it!" Zora answers Leth. She puts some weight on her newly healed knee to test it, then bolts down the tunnel.

"We should head back to the troll 'hive' unless you have a better idea, Zora. I'll see what I can do about alerting them to our plight." Mordred summons Thaumaturgic energy, increasing the sound of his voice three-fold. He shouts down the tunnel, "Trolls! King Everil needs you!"

"Not going back there! Need to follow the red..." Zora says as she runs. Zora runs back to the round chamber with the three red-painted exits and heads for the east exit, the one that veers north on a decline. The rest of the party follows her, Shamush bringing up the rear, slowed from his exhaustion. This tunnel curves back around to the south over the course of about 500' before leveling off and forking into three tunnels. A long red stripe has been painted along the wall, stretching over all three exits. Zora stops at this juncture, catches her breath for a second. "Red leads to the Sett," she huffs, talking to no-one in particular, "so they're all good." She takes off down the southeast-pointing tunnel. Another long stretch of tunnel leads to a natural cavern, so wide and sprawling it is impossible to make out its dimensions. Picking their way over uneven ground, through stalagmites, up sheer ledges, and down gravelly slopes, the party traverses some distance, breathlessly putting ground between themselves and whatever might be pursuing them, before Zora finally stops.

"I think maybe this wasn't the right way," she says. "But I don't think we should backtrack." She seems to take clear notice of Shamush and Zangua for the first time. Her brow furrows. "How did you find me here, anyway? Mordred? Why did you follow me all this way?"

Mordred chuckles. "I didn't, actually. I ran into these three in the sewers, as they were making their escape from the Justiciars. They were wanted in connection with a murder that appears to be linked in some way to how they were investigating what happened to your father. When I realized what you might be wrapped up in, I joined them to find you. These two good men joined up along the way. They can be trusted. Zora, what happened? What do you know about these people - and things - chasing you? Do you... know what happened to the Sphere?"

Zora sort of reflexively stiffens when Mordred mentions the Sphere, throwing another wary look at the two strangers before seeming to remember that Mordred just said they could be trusted. "No. I don't know what happened to the Sphere. Dad didn't tell me much of anything, really. Just what he wanted me to do. And that...thing...he didn't say anything about that. He said there would be people after me, but...honestly, when Everil told me about it, I thought he was just trying to scare me into staying put." She looks up. "So...what happened to Dad, anyway? Is he in prison? Who got murdered?"

"Zora. I'm sorry. Of course you don't know. He... He was executed a week ago. That's what spurred Leth, Felor and Vad to clear his name. There was nothing we could do. Nothing anyone could do. The Tetrarchs would hear no appeals, and they... He sighs and grabs her arm as best he can as they run. "They put him to the question, Zora. He didn't talk, didn't - or couldn't - tell them anything. We've got to find out what happened to the sphere and make it clear to these people that you and Edvers had nothing to do with it."

It's strange to Leth that Zora didn't know she was being hunted, but that's a conversation that will have to wait, at least for a little while longer. He has some questions he would like to ask her, but is wise enough to know that he should probably give her a bit of time to process the news of her father's death first.

When Mordred says the word executed Zora stops, puts her hand on a stalagmite to steady herself, and stares blankly ahead. She barely seems to hear the rest of what Mordred has to say. But after a long moment in which it seems someone may have to drag or carry her if they want to go any further, she shakes her head and looks down at the ground. "Of course they did. Of course. I don't know why I let myself hope otherwise." She locks eyes with Mordred. "He did steal the Sphere. He told me so straight out." She starts walking again. "He said some secret society he used to belong to made him do it. The 'Six-Pronged Crown.' Told me I had to get to Hazard before they found me, that they'd be coming after me, because they could make him steal the Sphere but they couldn't make him give it to them, so they'd come after me to try to find it." She stops again at the edge of a steep gravelly slope, pinches the bridge of her nose for a moment while she squeezes her eyes tightly shut, then sits down on the edge and pushes off to slide down.

At the bottom, she gets up and brushes herself off. "You didn't tell me, who got murdered?”

"Some innocent women who were looking for information on that 'secret society' on our behalf... before we realized quite how dangerous they really were. We don't know exactly what happened, but they - we - attracted the wrong kind of attention to them without meaning to, and they paid for it." Leth says guiltily. "...Perhaps it would be best if we started from the beginning..."

The party fills Zora in on all of the adventures they've had escaping from Sthombo and tracking her down. Her spirits lift a bit at the mention of the tile recovered from her personal effects at Grine's Knot. "You got it back! Dad gave me that -- that's what I'm supposed to deliver to Hazard. I thought I was going to have to draw it from memory when I got there. Do any of you know what it means?"

"It's something to do with Nethuns, we think. But what about you, Zora? How did you get here? What happened to the ranger? Everil said he was killed by The Implacable." While asking her these questions and more, Mordred hands Zora her pack and gear, but carefully attempts to keep the tile back for himself. It's not that he doesn't trust Zora, but if Adan and the Six-Pronged Crown want it, he'd rather it not be in her hands.

For as well as Zora was able to metabolize the news of her father's death, the news of what happened at Five Stones after she left seems almost more than she can handle. The color drains from her face as she stumbles forward, almost rolling her ankle on the rough cavern floor as the dreadful information robs of her of her focus and concentration.

"I don't know why they want to find me so bad," she says quietly. "I don't even know what they think I can tell them. I didn't get much out of Dad, before he left. I could tell he was serious, that something was really wrong. I knew when he told me there would be people after me, and I had to stay ahead of them no matter what, he meant it. But he didn't tell me there'd be this -- thing -- following me, just killing everything that gets in its way." She looks up into the blackness of the cavern ceiling. "When I got out of Grine's Knot, I decided I'd just get into the Badgerways however I could and figure it out from there. Finding the King's Cradle wasn't hard, and I knew there were these underground roads they called 'the vines' that would lead into Hazard. I got lost, though. And Everil found me. Took me back to his castle, or whatever you'd call it. Told me it was too dangerous to leave because of that 'Implacable' thing. But he wasn't ever going to let me leave. Didn't take too long to figure that out." She thumps the butt of her bone javelin on the ground. "I talked him into letting me throw a few of these things to show off my arm. Put one right in the stream so I could grab it on my way out the next time he went on one of his patrols. And that's what I did."

"So here's what I found out. The Badger Kings used to rule over twice as much of the Ways as they do now. They call the south half of it 'the Squalid Sett' and that extends all the way under Hazard. And they mark all the tunnels that lead there with red so the trolls don't wander in there by accident. So if we get there, we should be able to get into Hazard, deliver that tile, and maybe find out why so many people are dying for the sake of that stupid Sphere."

"The Squalid Sett... who rules over that portion now?"

"The Squalid Sett has a queen, I guess," Zora says. "Everil had a lot of names for her: Queen of Rot, Lady of Filth, things like that. Mostly he didn't like talking about the Sett, though. Only brought it up to tell me how sorry I'd be if I ever wandered into it."

Zangua stops, turns his head. His glance passes over Leth and he can tell from the ranger's expression that he heard it too: echoes of a heavy thunk and a scrape on gravel, somewhere in the blackness of the cavern far behind them.

"Happy you all are catching up," interrupts Zangua, "but I think it's time we got moving. Don't care where we go, just so we go, y'know?"

Leth glances backwards for a moment, and nods. "Yeah... let's keep going. I'm pretty sure I just heard something back there, and I'd rather not wait for it to catch up to us. We can talk while we move."

"So to be clear, you don't know anything about the Crown Cult that's chasing us, or what your father's connection was to them? Or what's waiting for you in Hazard?" He asks once they get going again.

"What were his words...he woke me up before sunrise, told me to dress right away, that I had to go into Sthombo with the morning traffic and make myself ready for a long journey alone. He said this society he belonged to, years ago, made him steal the Iron Sphere, but that that was all they could make him do...they could make him steal it, but he wasn't going to give it to them. He said it was 'safe from them.' And he told me he was going to be arrested, and he showed me the six-pronged crown, and he said that was their sign, and he said they were very dangerous and that they'd be after me to try to find the Sphere, and that I had to get to Hazard as quickly as I could, without anyone seeing me, and that I had to deliver that tile to..." she trails off. "...To, uh, the owner of a trading company who supposedly will know what it means and what to do about it." She walks in silence for a moment, pulling herself up an incline using a thick stalagmite for a handhold.

"He said one last thing, just before I left Greenbower. And, I don't know why exactly, but something about the way he said it...it scared me. He said, 'Zora, you have to do this. You have to reach Hazard before they find you. I think you are the woman in the last dream of Mirza Horgul.' And he kissed me on the forehead and told me 'go, now!' and... that was it. I went. I didn't even dare stop and ask him what it meant." She turns to look at you all. "Do any of you know?"

Vad knows that name. It's been a long time, to be sure, but years ago, over a pot of perpetual stew at a roadside inn, a fellow sorcerer he'd chanced to meet had told him all about a particular obsession of his: an obscure prophet and seer who'd lived in Hazard in distant antiquity, whose writings caused quite a stir several hundred years after his death, when it was noticed that certain major events in the Werld seemed to have been foretold by his cryptic prophecies.

Mirza Horgul.

The sorcerer had shared some details of the prophet's life and the particular visions that came to pass, but Vad couldn't remember any of those now, just that eventually the prophetic hits stopped coming and Mirza Horgul fell back into obscurity. Nearly a century had passed since then, and only a handful of scholars and believers kept his memory and writings alive now.

Late into the night and into his cups, Vad had been offered the chance to examine a rare volume of Horguliana that the sorcerer was especially proud to own, and Vad politely declined. A small thing, it seemed at the time, but he can't help but regret it now...

Zora looks nonplussed. "That's...unexpected," she says. "Dad never had anything good to say about so-called prophets."

The party all hears a metallic scrape and a clunk, clunk, clunk sound coming from somewhere behind them.

Shamush leans on the wall a moment and glances back down the tunnel. He sighs, and asks the others, "So how come Everil was able to put a dent in that thing and our steel did nothing? Any ideas?" He spits and continues, "Not used to assholes shrugging off my club."

"I'm gonna guess magic, or some kind of spirit thing," says Zangua, almost monotone. "Maybe the fact that he could shapeshift means he's got some kind of otherworldly power behind his claws. Certainly wasn't his charming personality, otherwise we'd have taken that thing's head off between the two of us."

"Aye, certainly appears if mundane weaponry has no effect," surmises Felor as they move through the cave attempting to stay ahead of the construct, "Perhaps only magic - or magical beings - can harm it. Leth's sword, Everill's claws, Vad's sorcerous magics." He pauses for breath. "But if it's close enough now that we can hear it, perhaps we should devise some method of destroying or trapping it for good. Zora, do you know how much further we have to go to reach Hazard?"

Zora makes a face. "I don't think we're all that close to Hazard yet."

Mordred suggests, "Here's an idea: Those of us with magical attacks (me, Vad & Leth) hide while the rest continue on with Zora, that way we can get a surprise attack off from behind The Implacable and maybe continue guerrilla style attacks while he chases Zora."

"Honestly, I think its best we flee as far as we can," says Zangua, holding his side with a wince."That thing hits hard and fast, unless you've got some fancy trick up your sleeve to avoid that catchpole."

Zangua huffs a quick breather, then turns to Zora. "Keep moving," he says, eager to go and willing to push her onward. His earlier efforts having drained his deity's goodwill for the time-being, Felor opts to continue with Zora to protect her from any more mundane threats further down the tunnels. He whispers "good luck" to those hiding themselves as he and Zangua hustle Zora further down the cavern.

Zora doesn't like this ambush plan, and stops walking. "Mordred. Vad. Do you think you're even going to slow that thing down? You saw what it can do. If it's followed us here already, that means...Everil..."

Meanwhile, the sounds of scraping and stomping are getting closer, louder.

"I already like this girl," says Zangua, casting a glance over his shoulder. "Seriously, that thing's got serious hurt, and unlike most of us I don't think busting its kneecaps is going to slow it down."

"Zora, it's called The Implacable for a reason. It's not going to stop and it looks like we are going to have to fight it sooner or later. At this point, I'll take any advantage we can get. Unless you have a better idea, at least an ambush gives us the element of surprise. Now go!" orders Mordred.

"What makes you think you have an advantage here?" asks Zangua. "Does it see with eyes, can it be surprised? Because it's not a man so who knows." With that final statement, Zangua turns and makes ready to leave.

All of a sudden, the cavern is silent. The approaching sounds have stopped.

Zangua hears it coming, and throws up his arm just in time...

A sudden, sharp tearing sound breaks the silence, and Zora doubles over, falling into a seated position on the ground... she sits there, stunned, clutching her side. The party can hear the Implacable moving again, rapidly approaching.

Zangua kneels at Zora's side to check on her condition and whether or not she can be moved. There's a small, barbed bronze dart embedded in her left side, just above the hip. She seems awake and lucid, just stunned at the surprise attack. Seconds later, the Implacable runs into the illuminated area around the party, dented and gouged in places and covered in blood spatter, but evidently still functioning at full capacity. It passes Mordred's stalagmite cover in a dead sprint towards Zora, and the tiefling springs up from his cover and looses a bolt of flame straight into the construct's back. The Implacable skids to a dead stop, swivels its head around, and takes a few steps backward toward Mordred as it quickly pivots its body and thrusts its catchpole out in a straight line toward Mordred's neck...

Zangua takes a quick moment to determine if the barb can be removed, by knife if necessary. "Can you move?" he asks Zora. "Because if you can, let's."

Zangua deftly removes the dart from Zora's side. A trickle of green fluid drains out of the tip. He helps her to stand; her knees wobble a bit but she regains her footing and her composure quickly. Zangua pockets the dart for later study and pushes Zora onward. "Move!"

Leth glances at the "new" magical sword in his right hand, mirrored by his own regular sword in his left. Here goes nothing... He thinks to himself as he steps forward and swings both weapons at the metal creature. Leth swooshes just shy of the Implacable with his first swing, but connects a solid blow with the second...a blow that leaves his arm tingling from the impact and seems to harm the Implacable not at all.

Zora runs away from the Implacable in a direction that draws his attention away from where Vad is hiding. Raising both hands towards the Implacable, Vad summons a large mass of webbing, hoping to restrain it. A thick webbing of proteinaceous spider silk spreads out instantaneously from beneath the Implacable, anchoring to the floor and nearby stalagmites. Silk strands snap as the Implacable wrenches itself free of the web.

Leth swings hard at the Implacable's head, and with a bright burst of red sparks, shatters one of the red "eyes." His second swing connects as well, but as before, does not seem to damage the construct.

Zora doubles back, racing behind the web, perhaps to try and lure the Implacable back into it.

"Zora! What are you doing? Go with Zangua and we will follow you once we've dealt with this!" Mordred shouts, encouraged by Leth's success.

Vad conjures three glowing green projectiles that rocket into the Implacable's chest. It staggers a bit.

"I WILL MEET ANY RESISTANCE WITH DEADLY FORCE," the Implacable says. "I AM IMPLACABLE."

Felor pulls the mysterious copper vial from his bag, and peels off the wax stopper, careful avoid splashing any liquid on himself. He then flings the open vial at the construct and misses. The vial lands in the webbing.

Leth swings hard at the back of the Implacable's head, sending splinters of bronze flying.

Zora continues to circle around the web and shoves the end of her javelin into the sticky material, rolling some of the strands up into a ball on the end of it.

Vad fires another volley of magic missiles into the Implacable.

The Implacable turns its attention on Leth, whirling its catchpole at him for a fast double-strike. The end of the pole sweeps down and throws out Leth's knee, dropping him right into the path of the blade.

Leth lets out a cry of pain as he's dropped to his knees and then sliced open by the curved blade of the catchpole. He doesn't know the extent of the damage, but he knows he's in a whole lot of pain, and another hit like that would do him in. If I stay on the front lines, I'm dead. He considers bitterly. For now, at least, I need to get away... So thinking, Leth backs defensively away from The Implacable, watching for any sudden movement. As he backs up, he looks over the construct, trying to gauge whether or not it looks like they might be close to vanquishing it. Once he feels like he's out of reach, he turns and starts moving away from The Implacable a little faster. Leth's chest burns as his body fights the arcane toxins from the catchpole's blade. Scrabbling back away from the Implacable, he tries to get a good look at it. It's battered and gouged, and one of its eyes has been shattered. As hardy as this thing seems to be, it's not invincible...he can't help but feel like a final victory against this unnatural thing might be possible.

Seeing Felor coming towards him, he gives his sword a gentle lob hilt-first towards his companion, who deftly catches it. Weighing the sword in his hand to find the balance, Felor turns to the construct and brings it down in a diagonal strike at its head. Felor's swing strikes the Implacable's head so hard it seems to get stuck on whatever threads it rotates on, and it jerks it back and forth quickly to get it unstuck as it staggers back.

Zora, meanwhile, continues to jog around the perimeter of the web. Turning her javelin around, she starts wrapping the other end in the sticky silk.

Not completely sure if his magic is actually doing any good Vad can, unfortunately, think of no other options and sends more magical missiles towards the thing.

The Implacable twitches as Vad's magic missiles jet into him. "I CANNOT BE DETERRED. MY MASTERY OF VIOLENCE EXCEEDS THAT OF ANY WHO STAND IN MY WAY. I AM THE IMPLACABLE PURSUER," it asserts as it wheels around jerkily, as if considering which threat to dispatch next.

Felor strikes a mighty blow across the Implacable's abdomen, cracking it. Bright cobalt-blue fluid bubbles out of the crack.

Meanwhile, having wrapped both ends of her javelin in the sticky strands, Zora charges up behind the Implacable with the javelin held horizontally out in front of her, and attempts to jam the sticky ends into the backs of its knees. Zora only manages to get it stuck behind one knee. The Implacable spins around, the javelin dangling and bouncing from the back of its left leg. Zora jumps back.

Growing frustrated and nearly out of magical tricks Vad reaches inward channeling his sorcereristic power to summon yet another volley of magical darts.

The first magic missile strikes the Implacable in the hip, turning it slightly as the second missile strikes it in the side. A gout of the bright blue fluid spurts out of the crack in the construct's abdomen, splattering on the ground. The third missile strikes it in the pelvic area, and its legs buckle and it sinks to the ground as the fourth and final missile hits its squarely in the head. There is a sudden loud hisssss and a crack! crack! crack! as the red gems in its head burst, one by one.

The Implacable's upper body pitches forward until the top of its cylindrical head rests on the ground, as if kneeling in abject prostration. Tendrils of steam and smoke coil upward from its body and head. It does not move.

"Someone check to see if it's dead!" Vad yells, astonished that the thing appears to have finally been defeated. Felor immediately drops his shield to allow him to wind up a huge two-handed swing at the deactivated construct's neck. It takes more than one swing to cut through the construct's bronze neck, but Felor manages to decapitate the Implacable.